Local birders have been flocking to Beeding Brooks to get a look at a very rare winter migrant, the Great Grey Shrike.

Famed for their penchant for creating a larder in a thorny bush, where prey such as mice, birds and insects, are impaled, these handsome birds, about the size of a Thrush, move south in the winter to escape the frozen north, but are scarce visitors to the UK.

This one appeared by the River Adur by Beeding Brooks on Tuesday 12th of November, and has stayed around for a couple of days already, albeit often keeping its distance from the gaggle of birders (see distant photo via Lee Manvell).

Let’s hope it will spend the winter around these parts and that photographers will give it the space it needs to feel at ease.